About Community and Public Service

Our community and public service program is designed for individuals looking to complete short-term volunteer opportunities in Denver and Castle Rock. This can be for court-ordered community service, to complete volunteer hours required for school or work, or for those who want to help at our shelters but cannot make the six month-three hour per week general volunteer commitment. We offer shifts seven days a week from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and we make it convenient for you to complete your hours by allowing you to sign up for shifts through our web portal.

Since community and public service volunteers do not go through our full volunteer training process, you will have no direct interaction with the pets at our shelters. If you are interested in a longer commitment with animal interaction click here.

We are authorized signers for all counties in Colorado. If you have been assigned court-ordered service from another state, we can still accept you into the program but we are not able to sign off on paperwork. Instead we can provide a letter stating the days and hours worked. Please verify with your county that they will accept a letter in lieu of paperwork before applying.

APPLICANT ACCEPTANCE- The Dumb Friends League reserves the right to deny any application to the community service program for any reason. Even if your charge is listed above, you are not automatically qualified as a participant in the program.

Community Service Process

1. Complete the application.It will take up to four business days to process your application.

2. Complete a background check.We will send you a background check once your application has been accepted.

3. Attend an orientation.Once your background check has cleared you will be invited to attend a community service orientation. Community service orientations are held twice a month at both shelters. In this orientation you will fill out volunteer paperwork, learn about the program, and receive your login information to begin signing up for shifts.

4. Start signing up for shifts.Within 24 hours of your orientation you can begin signing up for volunteer shifts through our online web portal.

Application Fee: $7

As part of the application process, there is a $7 application fee that covers the costs of administrative processing, background-check fees and the volunteer name tag. After submitting payment, you will need to fill out and submit the application using the link on the next page.